Rachel Cusk: "Motherhood is a devastating experience"

BarcelonaThe peculiar and subtle work of Rachel Cusk (Saskatoon, 1967) has been gaining readers in Catalonia thanks to the commendable commitment of the publishing house Les Hores, which has published four books in five years. In addition to two of its most compelling titles –A life's work (2001), a revealing and controversial look at motherhood, and Sequel (2012), a chronicle of the shipwreck of his marriage, has revealed the latest novels he has written, The other house (2021) and Parade (2024). "I haven't invented anything in my writing for a while now," says Cusk. "Life is a writer's primary material. The purest literature often comes from personal and intimate experiences."

Cusk has put this approach into practice both in her analysis of parenting and when explaining the end of a relationship, but also in her published fiction. It was in the trilogy Outline (2014-2018)–available in Spanish at Asteroide Books– that the Canadian-born British novelist found a way to draw on her own biography to reflect on themes such as identity, ambition, and prestige. She does so with the unique distinction of producing books that are less autobiographical than essayistic: her stories advance through reflection, rather than guided by gruesome or revealing details about the narrator herself, who becomes progressively blurred.

Creation and Children

Parade, which Núria Busquet Molist has translated into Catalan, continues to delve into Cusk's interest in the visual arts. Is it because they interest her more than literature? "It's a very good question, one I'd never asked myself until now," she admits. "While it's true that I mostly remember writing as a child, as a teenager I was more interested in the visual arts than in writing. So I studied English at university without really excelling." Saving Agnes, is from 1993]. It took me a while to realize that I could write novels guided by the radicalism and freedom of the paintings."

A Parade puts it into practice for the second time. If The other house A middle-aged writer was trying to regain inspiration by meeting a failing painter who was staying in the lavish home of a couple of friends, Parade It begins with an artist named G who begins painting figures and landscapes upside down, a radical change in her work that critics applaud. "G believed that women couldn't be artists," writes Rachel Cusk in the book. The question of creation and femininity runs through this and other novels by the author. "Historically, women who had dedicated themselves to creation had had to give up having children, a stable emotional life... In other words, it was necessary for them to stop being women, in a way," she explains. "Perhaps to achieve an authentically feminine gaze, it is necessary to resort to violence."

A Parade There is also an artist named G who exemplifies the tensions of living "female lives beyond structural femininity." The character, who is partially inspired by Louise Bourgeois –just as in the artist G resonates Georg Baselitz–, leads a double life: one as a mother and partner to a man, and another, freer, creative life, which ultimately challenges the first. "Motherhood is a devastating experience," she says. "It leaves you no time for anything. If you create something while you're parenting, it's a double loss, because you can't dedicate 100% of your time to your children or your work."

Against easy books

Cusk is working on her next novel, also focused on the art world, from Paris, where she has lived for the past four years. "France invites me to experiment more," she says. "Authors like Emmanuel Carrère, Annie Ernaux and Édouard Louis show us that the writer is not just a disembodied voice outside the book, but often needs to get involved." The English author left the UK after the Brexit vote: "It's a country where they never understood my literature. I'm glad I left. The reviews of my novels were mostly condescending. "Why are you so difficult?" they would reprimand me. Or again: "Why are your characters so unhappy?" In the UK, they want easy books that can be read quickly." Despite feeling misunderstood, Cusk continues to win awards.Parade "She won a good prize, the Goldsmiths, for which she had been nominated on previous occasions," she recalls. "They made me go through the humiliation of going to the awards ceremony up to three times before they gave it to her. We English are like that."